Coming Back
by HecateA
Summary: Wood nymphs can't travel too far from their trees. Nor do many of them want to, anyway. All except for one... Writen for the Percy Jackson Ship Week 1; Grover and Juniper.


**Hello reader! This story was writen for something called PERCY JACKSON SHIP WEEK! I saw it on Burdge-bug's tumblr, and basically it's one ship being glorified for every week until The Mark of Athena comes out. So I thought it'd be cool to write a story for each week. The order goes as such: **

august 6 august 13: Grover and Juniper.

august 13 august 20: Clarisse and Chris.

august 20 august 27: Silena and Charles.

september 3 september 10: Thalia and Luke.

september 10 september 17: Hazel and Frank.

september 17 september 24: Piper and Jason / Reyna and Jason (optional)

september 24 october 1: Percy and Annabeth.

**Hence this piece. This is my first Grover/Juniper and it'll be my first Chris/Clarisse, _and _Thalia and Luke, so that'll be interesting. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or the story line of Percy Jackson and the Olympians. **

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**Coming Back**

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**Percy Jackson Ship Week #1 Grover and Juniper**

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"Hey," Grover told her. She spun around and got pulled into his arms, a warm hug that meant the world to her. She breathed heavily, her head against his chest.

"Are you okay?" Juniper asked.

"I'm fine," he said sounding nervous. "I'd ask you, but you don't look so good. What's wrong?"

It was as if she was haunted when she really contemplated what was wrong to try and put it into words.

How all the demigods had suddenly stopped what they were doing, strapped on their armour, loaded themselves with weaponry, piled into the vans and left for New York. That'd been a scary sight, and many nature spirits had been confused until Katie had come to talk to them and explained things very quickly, before Miranda had pulled her to the last van to leave. It'd all taken about fifteen minutes.

And then suddenly all the satyrs had acted up as their friends and protégés were charging off to war, and Grover had rallied everyone and gotten them dressed and armed and prompted for battle; ready to fight and give it their all, talking better than the Council of Cloven Elders ever had, winning their trust with a few words spoken at the right time in the right order with the right tone of voice.

She buried her face in his armour. "I want to go," she said.

"What?" He said. She tilted her face up.

"I want to go." She said. "With you. To New York. To fight."

"You can't fight, Juniper." He said.

"Well nor can half the satyrs, but they all do it anyways." Juniper said. "I want to be where you are, just for once. For this one time."

"You can't," he said. "I mean… you can't," he said more gently this time.

"I know that!" Juniper said. She got out of his grip and kicked a pine cone away.

"Juniper, it's okay." Grover said.

"No, it's not okay!" Her mind was raging. "You're always doing these incredible things to save the wild and save the world and I'm stuck waiting in here because I'm a tree and trees can't freaking walk!"

"That's okay," Grover said. "It doesn't matter. I love trees."

"Yes it does!" Juniper replied hotly. "It matters to me! It matters to me because I don't know where you are and I don't know what you're doing and I don't know if you're okay and do you know how horrible it is to have no way of finding out?"

Grover looked hurt. "Is this about last month? Well, the last two months?"

When Grover had left for his travels under the blessing of pan, she'd wanted to go. She'd wanted to follow him really badly. For Pan, of course, the Wild was her home after all. But mainly for Grover. Nearly completely for Grover, actually…

But no. She was stuck waiting in Camp Half-Blood, lonely despite the company of Brooke the naiad, Annabeth, Maple Rose, Holly, Percy when he was around, Acacia, Cedar… All those people and nymphs seemed to stick to her closer than ever when he wasn't around. But she was still so lonely, sometimes she felt sick. Not homesick, because she was home. But she missed him just as much as the new coming half-bloods missed home. The only thing that would subdue the sickness was his short and brief messages that gave her a short glimpse of what she'd see if she were with him. She knew that he sent them as often as he could- but pigeons that were both willing and intelligent just weren't an everyday thing anymore. Quick words scrawled on the bark of an oak tree, on a big leaf, the back of a soda bottle label that humans had abandoned in the woods… Always ending in 'wish I could say more, love you, Grover'.

She always felt like answering; 'wish I could see more, love you too, Juniper'.

"No," Juniper said. "It's about the last forever. I can't go to you. I can't find you. I can't go help you like Percy and Annabeth can, or anybody else."

Grover looked like he was going to reply that unlike Percy and Annabeth they'd actually taken one of the multiple opportunities to hook up and to admit that they were a couple, but he didn't.

He just pulled her back in his arms.

"Don't worry," he said. "You don't have to worry about getting to me, or finding me. Because I will always, _always _come back to you."

And he was goofy and clumsy and awkward; and he wasn't used to being a leader or a soldier; and he wasn't the strongest or the toughest or the meanest.

But she believed him.

Because he cared so much about so many things.

_Dinner at the pavilion was low-key. The only highlight was Juniper the tree nymph, who screamed, "Grover!" and gave her boyfriend a flying tackle hug, making everybody cheer. They went down to the beach to take a moonlit walk, and I was happy for them, though the scene reminded me of Silena and Beckendorf, which made me sad._

_ -The Last Olympian, page 371_


End file.
